Hello and thanks for stopping by! My name is Angela. I am a scientist, wife, cat-mom, and fitness enthusiast. This page is my personal blog, and you will find a range of topics, centered around healthy living. Why “The Chicken Scoop”? Well, when I started this blog, we had just gotten a small flock of chickens and the name just stuck! I hope you enjoy your visit!

21 Day Fix Extreme: Day 1

The first day of the challenge didn’t start off so well. You see, I pushed a little too hard at the gym on Tuesday, swimming with my friend Suzi.

We were in the pool for about an hour and I didn’t feel too bad until late Tuesday night. My shoulders cramped up and I had restless legs all night! I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep on the couch, laying on top of a heating pad with my legs elevated. Something in dinner hadn’t agreed with me either so I didn’t eat right away in the morning. I got a late start but decided to go with oatmeal first followed by 3 eggs, cheese, salsa, and summer squash for meal number 2.

1 Yellow, 1 Purple, 2 Green, 1.5 Red, 1 Teaspoon

I still wasn’t really hungry a few hours later but I knew I should eat in order to get in all my containers so I had some yogurt and a peach.

1 Red, 1 Purple

Finally, my package arrived in the mail! That meant I basically had no excuse to skip my workout that day, even though I still felt crummy from the rough night. Finally, I was feeling good so I threw on my workout clothes and got outside where it was a lovely 93º in my gym!

The first workout was Plyo, as in plyometrics, and I loved it! I couldn’t do most of the jumping, especially the jump lunges, due to my poor ankles but I still had a blast. The major thing I noticed was that it went by really quickly. I’ll do a full recap after I’ve tried all of the workouts Post-workout I decided to have a protein shake. I also added Arbonne’s Greens Balance to it and just counted it as part of the shake (like Shakeology is a vitamin shake?)

1 Red, 0.5 Yellow (for the almond milk)

At this point, it was pretty late in the day and I realized that I still had a ton of containers to go! To keep me on track, I found a little planner I used to use for my homework and decided to turn it into a portable tracker to keep in my purse. There is a new app but only for iPhone and I don’t like any of the Android apps so paper it is!

For dinner, I had lots of containers to make up so it ended up being a huge meal! 1.5 turkey burgers,cheese, broccoli, mashed sweet potatoes with butter, salad topped with tomatoes and cucumbers, salad dressing. (Please ignore the grapes that I did not eat!)

1.5 Red, 3 Green, 2 Yellow, 0.5 Blue, 1 Orange, 2 Teaspoons

I still had 2 Teaspoons and a Purple left for the rest of the day. I wanted to munch on something anyway so I had an apple with hazelnut butter. It honestly didn’t hit the spot but it was food (because I was actually still hungry) and it is better than eating junk! I did not go to bed hungry so that is a bonus for the program!

So that was it for the day. I am following the 1800-2099 calorie range so I thought I would track my food and see how it came out.

1541 Calories
66g Fat
126g Carbs
116g Protein

Not even close to 1800 calories! I had reached out to some online forums and had been told that the calories would run entirely too low with the program. Also, as expected, it is more carbohydrates than I prefer and lower in fat. The protein is right on the spot!

For now, I am going to continue to follow the program as written and keep an eye on my calories and macronutrients. I know that the purpose of this program is so that you don’t have to track your food but I am a scientist and want the data! I’ll keep you all updated with my progress!

I’m having fun with your info. I’ve seen the original programme a bunch and never looked too far into it but I really LIKE the idea of containers. Call me crazy.

It reminds me a bit of the old WW (talking 1985-ish) where you had boxes to mark off for every serving. I know that sounds like today’s WW but it’s not. It was boxes and like you’re doing, you looked at them after a meal or 2 and said, ‘Oh, dang. Now I still have to get in my X and Y and Z, what can I make with those?’ That sounds like a negative but it wasn’t. I sort of forced you to chose the types of foods you ‘filled the boxes with.’

It does make it easy to make sure you are getting a well balanced diet! I kind of like that. I’ll write a full post just about the workouts but it is less of a consistent program than TF or CX or P90X (or Insanity, T25, etc.). There is more variability between workouts so far which I actually kind of enjoy!

I know you can buy just the containers with the nutrition plan now but its only an extra $20 to get the whole thing. But its an option for people who do their own workouts!